Candidate for mayor takes aim at Queen

RangiMarie Bosma-Robson

Rotorua voters now have four possible candidates for mayor with 2013 mayoral challenger RangiMarie Bosma-Robson announcing she intends to stand in next year's council elections.

Ms Bosma-Robson stood under the name Janine RangiMarie Bosma at the last election and was fourth out of five candidates.

Ms Bosma-Robson joins incumbent mayor Steve Chadwick, Dr Reynold Macpherson and district councillor Rob Kent as candidates for Rotorua mayor.

All candidates have yet to be officially nominated, with the nomination process beginning on July 15 next year.

Ms Bosma-Robson told the Rotorua Daily Post she intended to replace Queen Elizabeth II as New Zealand's official head of state and set up a local Maori tribal council in Rotorua to replace the Rotorua Lakes Council.

She said she would campaign on a number of different issues including healthy eating, "uplifting the poor", promoting better education, protecting the environment and building on Rotorua's geothermal resources.

"I have an 800-year-old inherited indigenous Maori right to govern this area as the mokopuna (grandchild) of Kaingaroa, Te Puia and Rangitapu," she said in a statement. "I want a social justice law passed - none hungry, none homeless - for my local area of Rotorua and nationwide in New Zealand."

She said she wanted to see a true democracy for New Zealand, and to encourage more people to vote, wanted to see the voting age lowered to include children from the age of 5.